First Week - We filled the space with movement and color

Our first week was a week of exploration. Participants were divided into two groups so that we could devise two different syllabi to address the specific profile of participants. It is important to note that the profile of participants embraces the complexity of the ‘double nexus’ of age-disability. Therefore the manner in which we devise tasks to keep them focussed and active is a major consideration in the structuring of the syllabi as the approach to promote motivation and participation is different to working with groups of younger participants. (For more on this you may want to read Upton et al, 1979).

Most of Group A had participated in last year’s workshops including Maria Luisa and Mario who were the ‘star performers’ of our award winning videodance YO QUIERO BAILAR. We welcomed two new members, Asael and Jose Antonio. It was fantastic to experience how much they remembered of the tasks from last year. They performed the ‘Stick Dance’ perfectly for the benefit of the new workshop leaders! Therefore, we were able to dive right into our devising tasks. As always we start with a group warmup and then proceed to the creative tasks of the day. This group loved our new parachute!

Group B took their first steps by exploring our new apparatus - ribbons, parachutes, bean bags, scarves. We worked on developing short movement sequences using each prop. As for this group sequential movement memory can be a challenge, we start by introducing the prop as part of the warm up: what can we do with this, how does it move? what colour is it. We are prompting them constantly to help them stay concentrated and active. Afterwards, we began to link the movement tasks as a ‘story’ to music so that metaphoric language prompts and music support their engagement.